Rowan
Also known as 47 Ursae Majoris, Rowan is a non-portal star in the Praezorian Sector and nominally part of the Pollux Corridor. The Minzera have so far allowed humans to settle there without resistance. Rowan is roughly 8 ly off Pollux, without a hyperspace portal. It is a three-planet system, with one Jupiter-class planet, surrounded by ten moons and water clouds, one Saturn-like gas giant, and a cold Jupiter-class with numerous ice moons. It is called Rowan for the yellow berries of Earth, as of something that Ursa might eat (the star is in the constellation area but does not comprise the actual form of the bear). Its three planets are named Juno, Callisto, and Diana by the human settlers in the system and others accustomed to the Pollux Corridor. It has been picked out as a promising place for human settlement in Praezorian space, within helpful proximity of Pollux Station. Rowan is slightly hotter and brighter than Sol, and the whole system is particularly iron-rich, making it prime territory for human mining. Juno (47 Ursae Majoris b) Jovian planet, about twice the size of Jupiter, with white water clouds in its upper atmosphere. Juno is widely believed to have disrupted the formation of watery, rocky planets close to its parent star, but its tidal pull on its ten largest rocky moons and radiation have warmed them enough to make them habitable, despite it being outside the Goldilocks zone of its system. Its moons are all named for Roman epithets of Juno’s: Regina, Lucina, Populona, Moneta, Caprotina, Covella, Sospita, Februata. Regina Tor One of the largest human settlements in the Rowan system, and the oldest, having slowly grown larger by attracting people from Pollux and Dragon Eye Secundus since late 2155. It has an approved charter, and was added to Gryphon’s patrol circuit in late 2156. Regina Tor itself is on the moon Regina, which has a breathable purplish-blue atmosphere and near constant ambient light from both its parent star and the planet Juno. Regina is warm for Juno’s moons, and covered in Earth-like forests, with plains and chaparral at the equator, and a large oceanic system. The tor is a large rock formation near the equator on the Capitolina Great Plain, surrounded by extremely tall mountains (pushing and pulling from the neighboring planet make Regina more tectonically active than Earth); this position is very defensible and easy to access via ship, if one lands where the residents want them to land. The human settlement here is a combination of Gaiacore prefabs (a Star Port dome and several core buildings which came with the original starfarers) and a number of wooden structures built with local lumber. The plain is enormously verdant, and grows North American Great Plains crops (soy, wheat, rye, canola, corn) extremely well. Much of the local grains are poisonous to humans, but scientists are already learning to genetically modify them to make them fit for human consumption, and add their biodiversity to human mainstay grains. Pollinators are a problem, and so everything must be pollinated by hand or by imported honey bees, which are enormously coveted. Regina is mildly Permian; it has very large trees, many of which get buried in mud instead of broken down when they die, and the moon has a lot of oxygen and hence larger insects than on present-day Earth. Residents often prefer the high mountains, where the oxygen levels are reduced, but those who live in Regina Tor experience regular oxygen intoxication. Callisto (47 Ursae Majoris c) Saturnian planet, with many small rocky moons, mostly incapable of harboring life on their own, but rich in minerals and other useful materials. Many of these moons have already been mined by the Praezorians to some degree, but several are considered uninteresting to them. They have become a prime site for human mining operations, as well as caches for pirates. Its moons are all named for Arcadian settlements, patronized by Callisto: Charisia, Ellison, Melangeia, Paroria, Stratia, Alea. Diana (47 Ursae Majoris d) Jovian planet, orbiting about the same distance from Rowan as Saturn does around Sol. As Rowan is a yellow dwarf, this means that Diana and its moons are extremely cold and receive very little light. They are largely nitrogen ice and methane; Diana itself is a pearly blue color, similar to Uranus, bright of color, and clearly detectable from moons around Juno or Callisto, making it look like a little moon in their skies. Its moons are difficult to mine, given they are largely encased in ice, but its largest moons have a naming convention, each carrying the name of a famous princess from human history (who never became queens): Anastasia, Kaguya, Charlotte, Ameera, Nefertiabet, Sitamun.